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Straight Talk ZTE Merit Review (Video)

Rating:

I was really wondering what this ZTE Android phone would be like $129, it is a well-known fact that ZTE has always had very cheap phones, not just in terms of price but also construction.

However, after using this phone for just 5 minutes you soon see that this phone is better than the average ZTE.

The design of Straight Talk ZTE Merit is rounded, and the outer plastic shell has a soft rubber coating that gives the phone a little more grip in the hand. The phone remands me of a bar of a new soap to feel.
The power, home and volume buttons seem to be the only real cheap part of the physical design, they wiggle around loosely but this doesn’t appear to create any issues with functionality.

Preinstalled in the phone is a 2GB sdcard, which is a normal include with Straight Talk’s phones. Charging is through the micro USB port on the left hand top corner on the side of the phone.
The screen isn’t bright and the colors are not vibrant, and if you look at up close to the phone you can see the individual pixels. The screen is capacitive screen responds great, the Android version 2.3.5 works well on the phone, and if you have used Android before you will be please how quickly everything loads.

The back facing 5MP camera is very poor quality, so if you looking to take a happy snap, use a real camera if your after quality.

Network coverage is on the AT&T network, so you get good coverage. I did a speed test on the 3G and I was able to get 1.8Mb/s so that wasn’t too bad, I know I can get more speed by putting the sim card in another phone though.

Overall when compared to other phones around the same price, it’s not a bad phone. It was a pleasure reviewing it. - Daniel

Specs:

Network: AT&T

GSM 850/900/1800/1900 2G
WCDMA 850/1900/2100 3G

Size 4.6 x 2.4 x 0.5
Standby time Up to 10 days
Talk time Up to 6 hours
Weight 4.5 (ounces)